Norway’s Prime Minister shares his summer reads – including several recent NORLA Selected Titles
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has shared his book recommendations for the summer. We at NORLA were especially pleased to see that no fewer than five of the six Norwegian books on his list have previously been highlighted as NORLA Selected Titles.
Støre is known as an enthusiastic reader and has on several occasions emphasised the importance of literature. When he opened tne Bookday at the Norwegian publishing house Gyldendal earlier this year, he spoke about his own love of reading and about the continued importance of books in a digital age.
The summer reading list ranges from contemporary fiction and family stories to Viking history, and several of the books have already found – or are on their way to finding – readers far beyond Norway.
In The Odyssey, a son takes his father, who is living with dementia, to the family cabin at the edge of the sea : a place filled with memories and stories from a life that is gradually slipping away. The novel is an intimate story about the relationship between father and son, about memory, care and the experience of losing someone little by little. The Odyssey is one of NORLA’s Selected Titles for spring 2026. International rights are represented by Bonnier Rights.
In Hardrada, Tore Skeie paints a vivid portrait of Harald Sigurdsson, better known as Harald Hardrada, following his dramatic life from the Battle of Stiklestad through exile, warfare and struggles for power in the East to the Norwegian throne. The book was selected as one of NORLA’s Selected Titles and has already attracted considerable international interest. International rights are represented by Stilton Literary Agency, and rights have been sold to Pushkin Press for World English, Gyldendal in Denmark and Nordboek/VBK Media in the Netherlands.
In Not People I Can Depend On, we meet Linda, who after 25 years of marriage discovers that her husband has fallen in love with someone else. What follows is a darkly humorous and uncompromising story of marital breakdown, rage, revenge and a life that suddenly has to be rebuilt. The novel was one of NORLA’s Selected Titles for autumn 2024. International rights are represented by Paloma Agency, and rights have so far been sold to Hayat Publishing in the Arab World, Rahva Raamat in Estonia and Európa Könyvkiadó in Hungary.
In Will and Testament, four adult siblings find themselves at odds over their parents’ inheritance, but a dispute over two family cabins soon exposes much deeper conflicts and competing versions of the family’s past. Through Bergljot’s struggle to be heard, Hjorth explores family, memory, guilt and the question of who gets to define the truth. The novel was selected as a NORLA Selected Title and has since become a major international success. The English edition, Will and Testament, was published by Verso Books in a translation by Charlotte Barslund.
The Bell in the Lake takes readers to the small village of Butangen at the end of the 19th century, where an ancient stave church, two legendary church bells and the encounter between tradition and a changing world are at the heart of the story. Through the story of Astrid Hekne, Mytting weaves together love, folklore and Norwegian history. The novel was selected as a NORLA Selected Title and is the first volume in The Sister Bells Trilogy, which has been translated into 17 languages. The English edition, The Bell in the Lake, was translated by Deborah Dawkin and published by MacLehose Press.
See the Prime Minister’s reading recommendations on Instagram
